Litzenberger House residents may get a warmer place in the sun

Solarium windows targeted in Bethlehem authority project.

January 16, 2006|By Nicole Radzievich Of The Morning Call

For Julia Marrero, the spirit of the Litzenberger House can be found in its seven solariums.

Tucked in the corners of the public housing building in south Bethlehem, those sun-filled meeting places are the backdrop to a great many conversations about the nearby Holy Infancy Church or her birthplace, Puerto Rico.

But come the colder months of winter, the conversations there are sometimes difficult. Drafts from the aging windows, with a southern view to the South Side, keep many of the elderly residents away.

"I don't go out there much in the winter," explained Marrero, who has lived at Litzenberger for eight years. "It's too cold."

That could change next year. The Bethlehem Housing Authority is working on a renovation that would take the edge off the draft and prevent leaks in the eight-story building at 225 E. Fourth St.

The $100,000 project, which would begin in the spring, includes replacing the windows in the solariums and covering over the stone aggregate on the exterior with stucco.

In recent years, officials found water damage in the solariums, right below the windows. Curt Kichline, the authority's planning and construction manager, said that some of the stone aggregate has loosened over the years. The missing "marble-size stones," Kichline said, contributes to the leaks.

The rooms would probably be a bit warmer as well, he added, because windows are more energy-efficient now than they were when the building opened 38 years ago.

The work would be the latest improvement on the South Side apartment building for low-income, elderly residents. Last year, the authority spent $150,000 rewiring the apartments and installing the first overhead lights. The switches had been wired to lamps, which did not bring a whole lot of light into the rooms.

In 2004, teenagers painted murals of gardens on the first floor of the Litzenberger House. And by the time Marrero moved there in 1998, the authority had already replaced the apartment kitchens.

The 100-unit, $1.5 million building was constructed in 1966 and named for Andrew W. Litzenberger who had strong ties with the South Side.

An original Housing Authority board member, Litzenberger had worked for Bethlehem Steel as an architect and later was Lehigh University's superintendent of buildings and grounds.

Since the Litzenberger House opened to residents in November 1967, the building's communal spaces, like the solariums and the Rev. Fred Flisser Community Room, have enriched residents' lives, according to residents.

The first-floor community room is a place for parties or bingo. The solariums are for intimate conversations, residents say.

Without those spaces, sisters Isabelle Toth and Margaret Buches say, residents would be resigned to live out their golden years by themselves in the well-furnished but somewhat lonely apartments.

"Without these places, I could see how someone could get depressed," Toth said. "But it doesn't have to be that way."